Chapter 14 - The Second Recording
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The next morning, Detective Marcus Hale called an urgent meeting at his office. Sarah and I drove down to the police station, bringing Clara along in her stroller.
Detective Hale met us in a glass-walled conference room. On the wall screen, a video frame was paused.
“Elena,” Detective Hale said, pointing to the monitor. “While analyzing the full cloud backup from your father’s hidden garage camera, we discovered another file recorded two weeks before the attack.”
He pressed play.
The video showed the interior of my father’s garage. Julian and Evelyn were standing near Dad’s old wooden workbench, shining a flashlight behind the tool cabinets.
Evelyn’s recorded voice echoed through the room speakers:
“It has to be behind this panel, Julian,” Evelyn was saying urgently on the recording. “Daniel told me years ago that he kept the original house deeds and personal papers in a hidden compartment behind the pegboard.”
Julian’s voice replied: “Are you sure, Mom? What if Elena finds it?”
“Elena doesn't even know it exists,” Evelyn scoffed. “Daniel hid it thirty years ago. If we get those original deeds, we can forge her signature on the transfer documents before she ever realizes what happened.”
I stared at the screen, my heart pounding in my chest.
“Wait,” I interrupted, looking at Detective Hale. “Evelyn said my father told her thirty years ago?”
Sarah leaned forward, her eyes wide with shock. “Elena... did your father know Evelyn Bennett before you met Julian?”
“No!” I exclaimed, utterly bewildered. “Julian and I met at a coffee shop three years ago! My father never mentioned knowing Evelyn!”
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Detective Hale pulled out a slim manila folder and laid it on the table.
“He didn't just know her, Elena,” Detective Hale said quietly. “Thirty-one years ago, before your parents bought Hawthorne Lane, Evelyn Bennett and Daniel Mercer were business partners.”
